Saratoga students are not receiving enough sleep

At 4:30 a.m., one light still shined brightly in junior Vivian Luo’s house. She sat at her desk with her face buried in an AP U.S. History textbook, frantically cramming for the big unit exam the next day. A good grade was necessary to raise her GPA, and this was the only solution.

But while staying up late to study for this one test may have short term benefits, such as a grade boost or a GPA raise, it can raise many long term concerns.

District nurse Lois Grant said that students are often not receiving the recommended 8.5 to 9.25 hours of sleep per night. Grant’s suspicions are not without reason, as a study by the National Sleep Foundation found that only 15 percent of teens actually sleep for 8.5 hours.

According to Grant, a lack of sleep can impact a student’s mental state, making it more difficult to concentrate and harder to control emotions.

Senior Megana Saripella agrees that being tired hinders people’s ability to learn.

“I personally believe that at a certain point, studying becomes counterproductive,” Saripella said. “If you keep up on your work, you can trust your ability to not cram and to just go to sleep.”

Lack of sleep can also pose long-term health issues, since a tired immune system does not function fully. For this reason, people who sleep less over long periods of time often catch colds and other sicknesses easier, AP Biology teacher Cheryl Lenz said.

Perhaps more importantly, a lack of sleep is often correlated with unhappiness. A poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation in 2006 found that 73 percent of adolescents who felt depressed also reported not receiving enough sleep at night.

Despite the talk about the importance of sleep, such is easier said than done at such an academically focused school.

For Luo, a good night’s sleep can be hard to come by between having three AP classes — U.S. History, Chemistry, and Calculus BC — on her odd days and being on two soccer teams outside of school. As a result, Luo often finds herself up until 2 or 3 a.m. completing homework. The next day she relies on coffee to keep her awake in class.

“I have all three of my AP classes on one day, which is kind of annoying,” Luo said. She recalls weeks when she has had test every day.

Still, Luo does not blame her classes or activities for her sleeping difficulties., She said she has stopped procrastinating this year and become more proactive about finishing her homework earlier.

For those looking to avoid procrastination, Luo recommends suspending social media accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, that typically take hours to maintain.

Assistant principal Kerry Mohnike feels similarly about students’ habits and lack of sleep. While she recognizes the coursework that students have to complete, she also believes that better choices will allow students to get more sleep.

Time management is a skill that all students should develop, she said.

Mohnike also thinks that students who consistently make the decision to be productive will have enough rest.

“I believe that students who try to get enough sleep do get enough sleep.”

Junior Karthik Ramachandran is one of these students. He is usually able to finish his homework and to show up to school well-rested and awake.

Ramachandran attributes his early sleeping habits to his parents. In middle school, his parents had forced him to sleep at 11 p.m., but even though they let him stay up later for schoolwork, he tries to complete all of his work by 11 p.m.

“Most of my friends sleep at 3 and wake up at 5 a.m.,” Ramachandran said. “Because I get all my work done, I show up to school not extremely sleepy.”

Teachers have tried many different tactics to cut down on students’ workloads, such as making homework optional in such classes as in AP Statistics or allowing students to be exempt from the final as in the regular physics courses. Luo notes that such options are helpful since homework often takes a large part of her day.

In addition, the new bell schedule in which school begins at 8:15 instead of 7:50 allows students an extra 25 minutes of sleep in the morning.

Finally, one step the administration has taken to ensure students get enough sleep is creating the time wheel when students sign up for next year’s classes, according to assistant principal Kerry Mohnike. This helps students make sure that they have the time to complete homework as well as sleep.

But there’s only so much that teachers and administrators can do.

“Ultimately, students control when they go to sleep,” Mohnike said. “It’s all about [their] choices and priorities.”